The Feminine MystiqueBust Magazine APRIL/MAY 2008
It was six years after (Ana) Matronic's near win that a biological female, Fauxnique, finally took the Miss Trannyshack crown. Trained as a dancer, Fauxnique had emulated drag queens since she was little and had been considering incorporating drag into her dance work when she first attended Trannyshack, in 1998. 'I saw Ana Matronic perform and realized, "Hey, someone will actually let me get up on stage and do this."' Her winning performance in 2003 included a rousing lip-synch to Elton John's 'Someone Saved My Life Tonight,' as well as an elaborate transformation, on pointe shoes, into a butterfly with 20-foot wings. Although her win raised some eyebrows, Heklina, the male drag queen who founded and hosts Trannyshack, defends the decision. 'I never came from a traditional drag background where there were all these rules about what it means to be a drag queen,' says Heklina. 'Trannyshack was never about that. It has always been about who gets out there and does the best performance, and Fauxnique is an amazing performer.'...'(drag) comes down to a sort of self-awareness, a self-consciousness about playing with around playing with femininity,' says Fauxnique. She adds that while drag for her is primarily about performance, it's also a 'rejection of traditional oppressive forms of masculinity_—and that's part of an affinity with gay men as well. I wouldn't say every faux queen is a feminist, but I would say that a part of them is in some way.' by Evie Nagy